Archive for the 'Aviation Safety' Category

Qantas today announced that their Airbus A380 fleet remains grounded for at least another 72 hours and will not return to service until the engine issues have been identified and resolved.

Qantas is continuing an intensive inspection program on all Rolls-Royce engines in its A380 fleet. As part of their investigation, Qantas engineers have removed a number of engines to undertake further examination. The focus of the investigation has been narrowed to the possibility of an oil leakage in the relevant turbine area.

These inspections are taking place in Sydney and Los Angeles with Qantas engineers working closely with Rolls-Royce, as well as Airbus and Australian regulators.

Qantas has scheduled extra services from Los Angeles to ensure passengers affected by the suspension of A380 operations are returned to Australia as soon as possible.

The backlog of passengers in Los Angeles is expected to be cleared by last departure from Los Angeles on 8 November with all passengers accommodated on specially chartered relief flights and across scheduled services. A Special Assistance Team has been deployed to Los Angeles to assist.

Hotel accommodation, meals and international phone calls have been provided for passengers impacted by the A380 disruptions. Qantas will provide compensation for customers who have experienced delays.

Today Qantas flight QF32, an Airbus A380-842, experienced an uncontained engine failure after take-off from Singapore. It performed a turn back and landed safely back in Singapore Changi. Parts of debris of affected engine number 2 punctured the left wing. The plane landed with opened landing gear doors as well as undeployed leading edge flaps - suggesting an emergency deployment of the landing gear or some kind of hydraulic or electrical issue caused by debris. According to sources engine No1 was producing significant thrust after the plane stopped and was not controllable from the cockpit.

The plane involved is VH-OQA, MSN 14. It was delivered to Qantas on 19th September 2008 and had logged around 8165 flight hours and 831 flight cycles as of today. It is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.

Qantas grounded its A380 fleet until sufficient information has been obtained about what occurred on QF32. Rolls-Royce has recommended immediate checks of its Trent 900 engines. Singapore Airlines, another operator of the Trent 900 engine, have announced that their A380 flights will be delayed as result of these inspections. Lufthansa sees no impact on its A380 flight schedule.

Michael Roberts is a pilot for ExpressJet Airlines. On Friday he has been denied access to the secured area of the terminal building at Memphis International Airport as he attempted to pass through the security line. Why? Because he didn’t wish to be scanned by the new, highly controversial AIT scanners. These devices, featured by the media in recent months, enable screeners to see beneath people’s clothing to an graphic and intrusive level of detail - an infringement of your civil rights and liberty.

On Tuesday a Tupolev Tu-154M (RA-85684) accomplished an emergency landing in Russia. The plane, operated by Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise, was bound from Polyarnyj (PYJ/UERP) to Moskva-Domodedovo (DME/UUDD) when suddely all of its electrical systems, radio and navigation systems, flaps and fuel pumps have been lost. According to aviation-safety.net the crew was left with only 3,300kg of usable fuel.
The crew decided to do an emergency landing at an abandoned air strip, too short for a Tu-154. The aircraft overshot the air strip and came to rest 160m past the end of the runway. More info: http://aviation-safety.net

On Friday evening a UPS Boeing 747-44AF (N571UP) crashed shortly after takeoff from Dubai Airport (DXB), UAE. Both crew members have been killed in this accident.
Flight UPS6 was bound from Dubai to Köln/Bonn-Konrad Adenauer Airport (CGN / Cologne) Germany. Eye witnesses have reported they saw that the plane was on fire before it crashed.

Video by Reuters

The aircraft was just three years old, entering UPS service off the Boeing production line in September 2007. The airframe had flown 9977 hours, completing 1764 takeoffs and landings. It was up to date on all maintenance, having just completed a major inspection in June 2010.

Qantas today announced that five Bombardier Q400 ( Dash 8 ) aircraft operated by its regional airline QantasLink had been temporarily removed from service following an inspection by the airline of a main landing gear component.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce, said the inspections, and subsequent action, were initiated by Qantas following incidents experienced by another Q400 operator overseas and after discussions with the manufacturer.

Does this remind you of anything? … The never-ending story of the Q400 gear problems …

An AIRES Colombia Boeing 737-73V (HK-4682) crashed on landing today at San Andres Island-Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Airport (ADZ), Colombia. One passenger died, more than 100 were injured.
Flight 8250 was bound from Bogotá to San Andres Island. According to early reports the airplane may have been hit be a lightning bolt during landing on runway 06. The engines separated from the plane, it crashed on the runway and broke into three sections.
Boeing is sending a team to provide technical support to the Colombia DJAC to assist in the agency’s investigation of the accident, at the invitation of the Colombian authorities.

Internationally well-known flight school Hillsboro Aviation is charged with a $580,000 civil penalty by FAA for allegedly performing improper repairs, deliberately falsifying maintenance records and operating a helicopter in a reckless manner.

The FAA alleges that Hillsboro mechanics used incorrect parts and an unqualified individual to make repairs to a Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter. The FAA also alleges the company made no record in the aircraft maintenance logs of work performed, and deliberately falsified maintenance documents claiming an airworthiness directive had been completed when the work had not been done.

In all, the company operated the helicopter on at least 103 flights when it was not in compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations between June 29 and Sept. 9, 2008. At least four of these operations were conducted under Part 135 (Commuter and On-Demand Operations) of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

The FAA also alleges that Hillsboro mechanics failed to perform the required inspections after specified flight intervals on another Jet Ranger helicopter when the aircraft returned to service after maintenance. Hillsboro operated the aircraft on at least 430 flights, including at least 349 revenue flights under Part 135 between Jan. 13 and Sept. 7, 2008.

The third violation involved the operation of another Jet Ranger on a passenger-carrying flight, July 8, 2008. The pilot flew under the Interstate 5 and 205 highway bridges over the Columbia River in Portland, Ore. The FAA alleged the flight endangered the lives and property of others, because it was conducted within 500 feet of a structure, and at a low altitude where a safe emergency landing might not have been possible.

Today a USAF McDonnell Douglas C-17A Globemaster III, assigned to the 3rd Wing at Anchorage-Elmendorf Air Force Base crashed near the AFB. At the time of the accident, the C-17 was on a training mission for the upcoming Arctic Thunder air show.

All four crew members have been killed. Three of the crew were members of the Alaska Air National Guard and the other was active-duty Air Force from Elmendorf.